Gallery: The Best WIRED Photo Stories of the Year
Michael Najjar01Photos2015-HP-02
*[Training to Become the First Civilian Artist in Space](https://www.wired.com/2015/06/michael-najjar-outer-space/)*. Michael Najjar is bent on being the first civilian artist to make it to space on Virgin Galactic’s maiden voyage. The images document the grueling training he’s undergone to prepare for the journey—including a stratospheric flight in a MIG-29 jet at almost twice the speed of sound.
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*[Hipster Barbie Is So Much Better at Instagram Than You.](https://www.wired.com/2015/09/hipster-barbie-much-better-instagram)* Even Barbie couldn’t resist the allure of living #authentic in this satirical Instagram. The account features the doll posting about her perfect life, cleverly critiquing the great millennial adventurer trend in photography. Creator Darby Cisneros retired the doll, but Socality Barbie’s spirit lives on in the form of millions of carefully photographed lattes and mountain vistas still everywhere on Instagram.
Romain Champalaune03Samsung Galaxy
*[Samsung Employees Vacation and Get Hitched Without Ever Leaving Work](https://www.wired.com/2015/12/romain-champaluane-samsung/#slide-5)*. The Samsung Group represents a whopping 17 percent of South Korea’s economy, so it should come as no surprise that it has infiltrated almost every facet of society. Romain Champalaune captures residential high-rises, universities, and even a theme park built by the company, showing its ubiquitous presence in South Korean life.
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*[What It’s Like Living in the Coldest Town on Earth](https://www.wired.com/2015/01/amos-chapple-the-coldest-place-on-earth)*. If you hate the cold, it might be best to avoid visiting Oymyakon, Russia. Located just a few hundred miles from the Arctic circle, the town’s 500 residents must keep their cars running 24/7 and have to heat the ground with a bonfire for several days to dig graves. Photographer Amos Chapple traveled to the village to discover what life was like in this frozen tundra.
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*[Behind the Scenes of Bangladesh’s Wild and Surreal Movies.](https://www.wired.com/2015/01/sarker-protick-love-me-or-kill-me/)* Sarker Protick captures the glitz and drama of Dhallywood, Bangladesh’s campiest film genre. Made quickly and often on the cheap, the movies are known for their outrageous plots and flamboyant names like *Love Me or Kill Me* and *Action Jasmin*. The kaleidoscope of saturated color and borderline cheesy effects only adds to the fun.
KOREAN CENTRAL NEWS AGENCY/KOREA NEWS SERVICE/AP06Kim Jong Il
*[Infamously Altered Photos, Before and After Their Edits](https://www.wired.com/2015/07/bronx-documentary-center-infamously-altered-photos-edits/)*. The exhibit *Altered Images: 150 Years of Posed and Manipulated Documentary Photography* provides timely historical context for the ongoing debate over just how much Photoshop is too much. The 40 photos showcase manipulations ranging from the darkening of an OJ Simpson mugshot on a 1994 *TIME* cover to Kim Jong-il digitally inserted in a North Korean military photo.
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*[The Hellish Beauty of California’s Wildfires](https://www.wired.com/2015/08/stuart-palley-terra-flamma-hellish-beauty-california-wildfires-drought/)*. When most people see a fire, they flee in the opposite direction. Not Stuart Palley. For his ongoing series *Terra Flamma*, Palley chases some of the meanest wildfires across California to create a "visual record" of the destruction.
Peter Garritano08WIRED2015-Bestof.jpg
*[The Internet Lives in a Huge Hotel in Manhattan](https://www.wired.com/2015/11/peter-garritano-where-the-internet-lives)*. Peter Garritano went behind the scenes of New York’s carrier hotels, where multiple networks converge to form a single, larger network that make up the Internet. Accompanied by security almost everywhere he went, Garritano photographed the miles of cables, rows of servers and frigid rooms that allow you to check your email.
JOJAKIM CORTIS AND ADRIAN SONDEREGGER09Ikonen-Hindenburg0603-1024x714
*[History’s Most Iconic Photos, Recreated in Miniature](https://www.wired.com/2015/03/jojakim-cortis-adrian-sonderegger-iconen/)*. When they’re not taking pictures for magazines and advertising agencies, Jojakim Cortis and Adrian Sonderegger are building miniature scale models of iconic photographs for their series *Iconen*. Charles Levy’s 1945 photograph of the Nagasaki bomb gets remade with the help of cotton balls, while Buzz Aldrin’s 1969 lunar footprint gets a new life with the help of a little wet concrete.
Kristy Chatelain10Franklin Street
*[Photos of Brooklyn Before and After the Hipsters](https://www.wired.com/2015/09/photos-brooklyn-hipsters)*. Kristy Chatelain’s series *Brooklyn Changing* shows the changing storefronts and building facades of Brooklyn as it continues to gentrify. Her before-and-after shots capture a New York borough continually in flux, sometimes to the detriment of residents forced out by rising rents.
Walter Chandoha11Photograph from Walter Chandoha: The Cat Photographer (Aperture, 2015)
*[Meet the Godfather of Cat Photography](https://www.wired.com/2015/10/walter-chandoha-cat-photography/)*. Long before pictures of cats invaded the Internet—before there actually *was* an Internet—Walter Chandoha took pictures of furry felines. His incredible studio portraits, set against jewel-toned backgrounds and perfectly lit, illustrate why cat photos have always been king.
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*[Here’s What Disaster Preppers Pack to Survive for 72 Hours](https://www.wired.com/2015/08/allison-stewart-heres-what-disaster-preppers-pack-to-survive-for-72-hours)*. Some people are more prepared than others. That’s clear in Allison Stewart’s *Bug Out Bags*, which peeks inside the survival packs people stow away in case of an emergency. Some contain ordinary items like a first aid kit and transistor radio, others guns and ammunition. The weirdest of all? A bag stocked with only tequila and barbiturates.
Debi Cornwall13Kiddie Pool (Analog 2015)
*[Inside Gitmo’s Surreal Recreation Spots, Tiki Bar and All.](https://www.wired.com/2015/06/inside-gitmos-surreal-recreation-spots-tiki-bar/)* Not many people picture tiki bars and kiddie pools when they think of Guantanamo Bay prison. Debi Cornwall photographed those surprising sights and more for *Gitmo at Home, Gitmo at Play*. The series captures the everyday interiors and exteriors at one of America’s most infamous detention facilities.
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*[What We’re Really Looking at When We Look at Pluto](https://www.wired.com/2015/07/really-looking-look-pluto/)*. The images of Pluto taken by New Horizons caused goosebumps across the globe when NASA released them in July. But what are we actually looking at? Is it real? WIRED considers what it means to gaze at a tiny dwarf planet 3 billion miles away that none of us will ever see in person.
